Midnight approached, and I was trying my best to win a board game by opportunistically trading colored cubes that represented Middle Eastern spices. The game was still untitled and under development. As we played, the CEO of Plaid Hat Games, Colby Dauch, asked questions. He wanted to know how each player’s mind was engaged. He wanted to know if the art on the cards made sense. He wanted to know: Were we having fun?
Woodville is an Ohio town of 2,100 people that sits 22 miles southeast of Toledo. The city’s official motto is “The Lime Center of the World.” And in an old building at 128 East Main Street that used to house the Woodville Lime Company, Plaid Hat Games is producing wildly popular products that are being sold throughout the world.
Across the globe
In five years, Plaid Hat has released six games available in nine languages. They are sold on every non-Arctic continent, and in most European Union countries. They have been restocking and selling so quickly that they could not tell me for certain which countries had yet to buy a game.
The Plaid Hat staff’s origins also fill out a map. Their graphic designer, Dave Richards, left a comfortable job in San Luis Obispo, California—Oprah Winfrey named it the happiest city in America—in order to be part of the Plaid Hat team in Woodville. Brian Beyke, the company’s community relations executive and unofficial hype-man, moved to Woodville last year after leaving an engineering career behind in Cincinnati. An artist in Dallas hand-carves mini sculptures for each figurine mold. Two of their games were designed by a developer in New York City.
Inspiration
Plaid Hat’s primary creative force started in Woodville. Colby Dauch’s mother met the mother of another burgeoning game designer from the nearby town of Gibsonburg, and they set up a meeting. Isaac Vega had only played board games seriously for half a year, but he already had ideas for new games. Dauch, who had previously developed his own successful games, quickly saw potential in Vega.
Vega’s most recent game, a zombie psychological thriller called Dead of Winter, has sold 30,000 copies since it debuted in August, and is on back-order for months. Vega gets most of his inspiration from everyday life. “How would someone deal with that situation if a dragon was involved?” said Vega, explaining his thought process when he scribbles ideas into his notebook. Vega will run with an idea, creating and revising during the two years it can take to develop a game.
Gameplay
Online broadcasts of video game competitions can draw over a million online viewers. But all of those viewers and players are on their own devices, separated from other players. Board games are an ancillary option for people who want more personal interaction. And, they accounted for $75 million in sales in 2013, according to website ICv2.
I sat down to play Plaid Hat’s next game, Specter Ops, to be released this spring. The game is played on a sharply multi-colored square board with intricate figurines and a pair of dice. I played the role of a special agent trying to reach three targets before being caught by four hunters. The big twist was that one of the hunters was a spy who was secretly trying to sabotage the other hunters and help me win. I selected Vega to be my secret spy. But despite his subterfuge and smoke screens, I lost. Dauch knew my next moves before I did. “I did help write the rulebook,” he said.
We played games for hours, filled with jokes, idle threats and pizza breaks. Beyke celebrated each of his successes with double-fisted, standing shouts as if he just won Wimbledon. I finally asked Dauch what made a good game, and he told me, “If you’re having fun, it’s a win.”
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Dorian Slaybod is an attorney happily living in Toledo.